1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to network enabled telephony devices, for example Voice over IP Telephones, configured for executing applications related to attributes of a telephony user.
2. Description of the Related Art
Telephony devices have advanced to provide enhanced features for business consumers. For example, a business premises deploying a Private Branch Exchange (PBX) for intraoffice or interoffice communications utilizes telephony devices capable of receiving messages from the PBX, including a time of day string or a calling party identity string. However, proprietary PBX systems limit the availability of features that can be added to the telephony device. In addition, proprietary PBX systems typically provide voice-only services, such that text, data, or images cannot be transferred to the telephony device.
Browser-based telephony device technology is being implemented in wireless telephones using Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). In particular, WAP uses Extensible Markup Language (XML) technology to communicate interface changes to wireless devices such as digital wireless telephones and pagers, enabling applications and services to be provided to the digital wireless telephones. The use of XML tags enables the data to be displayed on the digital wireless telephone display in a prescribed manner.
The WAP-based approach to displaying data on the digital wireless telephone still suffers from the disadvantage that the input and display controllers of the digital wireless telephone interact with a single WAP portal (i.e., server), limiting the flexibility of the telephony device operations. In particular, a user is unable to send or receive a wireless telephone call on his or her web-enabled digital wireless telephone while using the digital wireless telephone to access the Internet. This problem is particularly apparent in “Wireless Web” services offered by wireless service providers offering web-based services such as instant messaging: the instant messaging client resides in the WAP portal, hence the instant messaging service on the wireless telephone is separate and distinct from the wireless telephony operations. Hence, the wireless telephone user is unable to send or receive wireless telephone calls during use of the instant messaging client. Moreover, the distinct nature of the wireless telephony operations and the wireless web services limits the nature of enhanced services that can be provided to the user.
Presence detection systems typically are used to determine a location of a person using different detection means. Although the simplest form of presence detection may involve a user logging into a service, for example a user of a computer (or web-enabled wireless telephone) logging into an instant messaging service, proposed presence detection systems also may be utilized. For example, proposed presence detection systems are configured for determining the location of a person based on that person wearing an active badge; the proposed presence detection system, upon determining the location of the active badge, would identify a nearby telephone for routing an urgent call to the person. These presence detection systems, however, still are executed by a software resource separate from any user device; hence, the known presence detection systems are limited to identifying a location of a person, and do not provide any additional features (other than call routing) that would enable a user to enjoy enhanced services based on attributes associated with the detected presence.
Voice over IP (VoIP) technology has evolved to provide network enabled telephony devices, for example Voice over IP telephony devices, configured for performing multiple operations that emulate a telephony device. VoIP telephony devices often include large display screens or other display capabilities, enabling new service features to be provided for a user. For example, the VoIP telephones, such as the commercially-available Cisco Telecaster 7960 IP Telephone from Cisco Systems, San Jose, Calif., includes user input and display operations. These user input and display operations enable a user to access multiple windows displaying respective applications based on soft key or hard key inputs, such as accessing a central telephone directory for retrieval of an employee's telephone number using a search query or selection from the displayed list. A user of the VoIP telephone can access one window configured displaying call status (e.g., duration of call, called party identity), or access another window configured for displaying the central telephone directory.
The executable software resident in the VoIP telephone, however, tends to be device-specific. Hence, the executable software needs to be rewritten for newer VoIP telephones having different hardware configurations (e.g., different sets of hard buttons, color display vs. greyscale display, different-sized display, etc.). Moreover, the device-specific nature of the VoIP telephone software limits the manner in which different application services can be added to the VoIP telephone device for the device user: the VoIP telephone software needs to be modified to add the different application services.
In addition, the VoIP telephone typically is configured for communication with a single call server, resulting in additional resource requirements imposed on the call server as services are added. Hence, existing VoIP technology is limited in the available services due to the control of services by a remote server.